Future Heroes
by Antonio Cabaas
Summary: A mysterious scientist plunges Kirk's Enterprise into a very dangerous situation. Star Trek:TOS and another franchise crossover I want to keep the mistery until the second chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**Future Heroes**

by Antonio Cabañas

_Chapter 1_

**Disclaimer:** Star Trek in all its incarnations and all related characters are property of Paramount Pictures. The other part of the crossover is owned by C2 Productions (I want to keep the mistery a bit).

**Spoilers:** this story is set in the final year of Kirk's five-year mission, after Star Trek: The Animated Series.

* * *

_**Deep Space. U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701**_

_Captain's log.__ Stardate 6097.1_

_While we are testing the new deflector shield system designed by Professor Brennan, most of our crew will be on leave on Starbase 52, for security reasons._

As the captain closed the ship's log, Professor Brennan entered the bridge and Kirk repressed a sigh. Brennan was one of the most obnoxious individuals that he had met in his life.

"Ah, Kirk, I have just come from Engineering. That funny-talking guy down there has finished the modifications to the shield systems. We are ready to start the tests."

"Thank you professor, but I already knew that. Mr. Scott called while you were in your way."

"But…I ordered him…"

"You have no authority here, Professor Brennan, outside of the pure technical matters. And I would appreciate if you stopped trying to order my crew around."

Before Brennan could answer, and give Kirk a reason to put him under arrest, Spock asked the professor:

"Professor Brennan, am I correct to assume that the modifications in the deflector shield system will allow them to take energy directly from the warp chamber?"

"Exactly, Mr. Spock. That will increase the efficiency of the deflector shield system by a thirty percent."

"But that could cause an harmonic feedback between the nacelles and the deflector shields, causing an overload in our warp drive, and seriously damaging the ship."

"Bah, one possibility in a billion, Mr. Spock."

Kirk ignored Brennan and asked Spock:

"Is there some way to prevent the overload in our warp drive, Mr. Spock?"

"The warp drive overload will be preceded by a few brief signals. If Mr. Scott shuts down the warp chamber in that brief period of time, the deflector shield will return to normal operation mode."

"Captain Kirk, I assure you…"

"Professor, I have seen smaller possibilities become true facts, so don't lecture me on probabilities. Mr. Spock, brief Mr. Scott on the signals that you mentioned."

"Aye, sir."

He opened the intercom to Engineering.

"Mr. Scott, Mr. Spock will inform you of certain modifications of the protocols to follow regarding the Brennan device."

_A secret Federation facility, not too far from the Enterprise_

"Commander Nicholson!" said the man dressed in a light green jumpsuit, which identified him as one of the civilian specialists in the project.

Nicholson, a short, wiry man in his mid-40s, dressed in a Starfleet uniform, science division turned to him and answered:

"Yes, Mr. Sarkovsky?"

"The instruments around the artifact have been sending erratic signals all day long. Maybe some couplings need replacing?"

"You don't need my authorization to replace them if they are damaged, Mr. Sarkovsky."

"Yes, sir, but after the lightning storm of two weeks ago, we have almost ran out of replacements. I want to turn them off and repair the ones that are broken."

Nicholson thought about what Sarkovsky was suggesting for a moment and said:

"If I recall correctly how the power couplings are placed, you can't turn them off one by one. You have to deactivate all of them simultaneously."

"Yes, I know. But with so few people here this past week, there is no danger that somebody would activate the artifact."

"All right, but you have to repair them before the director returns from her meeting."

"Don't worry, commander. I'll only need a few hours."

While Nicholson resumed his walk to the command building, a wicked smile crossed Sarkovsky's face.

_USS Enterprise_

"We should be ready for a dynamic test of the shields." announced Brennan from the engineering console, sitting alongside Johannsen, Scotty's right hand. "That is, if you are ready for them."

"Scotty, activate the new shield system configuration" then he turned to the communications officer. "Uhura, signal the Corsair and the Lexington, they can start now."

_A secret Federation facility, not too far from the Enterprise_

"Three…two…one…go!" said Sarkovsky as he jumped through the device.

The planet emitted a wave, which hit the science vessel in orbit of the planet, replacing it with another ship with more sinister intentions.

_USS Enterprise_

The Enterprise shuddered as the phasers from her sister ships grazed her shields.

"Shields holding." informed Johannsen from the engineering station, "No sign of…"

The voice of Scotty interrupted his subordinate.

"The intermix chamber is overheating! I'm gonna turn off the shields!"

"Uhura, signal…"

Kirk hadn't time to complete the sentence, as the ship suddenly shook, throwing almost everybody to the ground.

"What was that?" asked Kirk while he tried to get back to his feet.

"Unknown, sir." said Spock who had somehow managed to stay in his chair. "Whatever hit us, however, seems to have reset our computers. "

"Damn!" said Kirk.

"Jim, what the hell was that?" said Dr. McCoy through the intercom

"We are still trying determine that, 'Bones'. Anybody hurt?"

"Only my wits! As in 'scared out of'!" Captain Kirk smiled, if the cranky doctor had time to complain, then, nothing serious had happened.

"Captain Kirk!" croaked a faint voice to his back. He looked back and saw that Professor Brennan was still lying on his back. One of his arms was twisted in a way that couldn't be natural.

"Medical emergency! Professor Brennan..."

"On my way!"

A planetary orbit, not too far from the Enterprise 

The ship scanned the surface. The time ripples that seemed to emanate from the planet had attracted it there. There seemed to be a settlement in the surface of the planet. Obeying blindly its programming, the ship coded its findings and transmitted it in a tachyon burst aimed at the third planet of a mid-size yellow star in one arm of the galaxy, that one time had been called Earth.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Future Heroes**

_by Antonio Cabañas_

**Spoilers:** this story is set in the final year of Kirk's five-year mission, after Star Trek: The Animated Series.

The disclaimers are in the end of the story.

* * *

_Deep Space. USS Enterprise, NCC-1701_

"I have Brennan in sickbay under sedation. His arm is healing well, but he had a severe concussion." reported McCoy in the briefing room of the Enterprise. "What was that thing that hit us, Jim?"

"Spock?" said Kirk, passing the question to the science officer.

"After examining the sensor readings, I have found that the phenomenon that hit us shared most of its characteristics with the time ripples that emanated from planet Gateway." answered Spock.

Upon mentioning the name of the planet both McCoy and Kirk winced. Both had very unpleasant memories associated with that place.

"But Gateway's time ripples only caused minor problems not the outright…" countered Kirk.

"Captain, if you let me explain…"

"Continue, Spock, _s'il vous plais_."

Spock raised an eyebrow before continuing.

"As I was saying, the phenomenon was similar, but thousands of times more powerful. I would speculate that we have been the first surviving witnesses of a timeline change, probably caused by somebody trespassing in the Guardian of Forever."

"How can it be?" said McCoy.

"The deflector systems modifications, coupled with the overload may have caused the deflectors to act as some time of temporal shields."

"I'll be damned! That ass saved the ship!"

"'Bones', please, don't insult the poor professor. Even if he is a real ass." answered Kirk, and both chuckled. "I think that we only have one option, gentlemen. Go to Gateway, and assist the research project there in restoring the timeline."

_Planet Gateway_

The ship orbiting the planet received the answer. If the ship had been piloted by humans, the captain would have been astonished by the speed of the answer. Being computer controlled, it started obeying them immediately, assembling the robot troops from the parts stored in the ship cargo bays, and readying the landing crafts.

_USS Enterprise.__ En route to Gateway_

_Captain's personal log.__ Stardate… no stardate_

_Two hours have passed since the Enterprise set course to the Gateway planet. It's the only way, I know, but I cannot forget what happened the first time that we set foot on that planet. I hope that this time…_

"Captain, we have detected something that can be of your interests." Said Spock from the intercom, interrupting his train of thought.

"On my way." answered Kirk, and while getting up, he ordered to the computer to erase the last log entry.

A few minutes later, he stepped on to the bridge.

"Spock, what is happening?"

"I detected a very strong tachyon pulse, captain, a phenomenon that cannot happen in nature."

"I thought that our equipment couldn't detect tachyons, Spock"

"Correct, captain. But a tachyon leaves in its wake a subspace analogue of Cerenkov radiation, some of which our instruments can detect if properly attuned."

"Good work, Spock. And what could be the origin of that tachyon pulse?"

"I think that the nature of that pulse is closer to Lieutenant Uhura line of work than mine."

"Communications?"

"Very possibly, sir. And the origin seems to be very close to Gateway."

"Damn! Spock, help Uhura to work on that, let's see if we can get something useful from that pulse. It'll help to know what we are going to find."

_Planet Gateway_

The secret Starfleet facility built to protect and study the Guardian of Forever was in a state of maximum alert. All the defenses were raised, the defense perimeter fully manned and every historian in the base was trying to discover what had been changed while the Security people kept the strange ship in orbit under surveillance. When the ship started to deploy smaller vessels, they had no hopes that they were going to meet them on peaceful terms. The maneuvers that the ships were doing had all the characteristics of an assault.

_U.S.S. Enterprise_

"Captain, I think that I have something." Said Uhura.

"Already?"

"After we managed to transform the sensor readings into something that the computer could recognize, the computer decoded it very swiftly. It's, apparently, very similar to a programming language developed on Earth in the last decade of the XXth Century."

"Curious." said Kirk. "Mr. Sulu, ETA to the Gateway planet."

"Ninety minutes, sir."

_The planet formerly known as Earth_

From the central core new orders were issued to other ships to change course, and head to the planet where the scout ship had detected the only thing that the inhuman intelligence, that was the core of the growing mechanical empire, feared, a Time Weapon. Long ago, the intelligence had made use of Time Weapons, but compared with the one on the surface of the planet, those were toys. And worse still, there were humans, the long time exterminated enemy, in the surface. In addition to that, the long-range sensors of the scout ship in orbit of the planet had detected a ship coming, larger and more powerful than anything he or the rag-tag Interstellar Alliance had in their fleets. There was only one option, destroy the humans and take control of the Time Weapon. At all costs, Skynet must prevail…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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**Disclaimer:** Star Trek in all its incarnations and all related characters are property of Paramount Pictures. Terminator is owned by C2 Productions (I think). 


	3. Chapter 3

**Future Heroes**

_by Antonio Cabañas_

**Spoilers:** this story is set in the final year of Kirk's five-year mission, after Star Trek: The Animated Series.

**Answer to Reviewers: Jarel Kortan: **I hope that this chapter will be worth your waiting time.

**Disclaimer:** Star Trek in all its incarnations and all related characters are property of Paramount Pictures. Terminator is owned by C2 Productions (I think)_  
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Planet Gateway_

Commander Jonathan Nicholson looked with despair at the figures in the screens. They were defending the installation with all the resources that they had, but they weren't enough. Although the technology of the mechanical attackers was a century behind Federation tech, their sheer number would eventually overwhelm the defenses. And all of this was his fault, because he left Sarkovsky alone with the Guardian.

"Commander Nicholson!" said the deep voice of Dr. Chandra, the chief civilian scientist of the project, to his back.

"Doctor, we are very busy…" he started to say, as plasma bursts impacted the shields, the noise drowning his last words.

"I know, I know, but the security people have discovered something very interesting about Sarkovsky."

"Sorry, Doctor, later." And then he added "If there is a 'later'"

_USS Enterprise. _

"We have intercepted a series of communications between a ship in orbit of Gateway and a place that is in the general direction of Earth." said Spock "The dry and clinical nature of the messages suggests that the ship is unmanned."

"Dry and clinical, Spock? That sounds like one of your reports." Said McCoy.

"Doctor, the original transmission was a compilation of data collected in orbit around the Gateway planet and a signal asking for further instructions. Nothing else, Doctor. Even a Vulcan would have included something more." answered Spock

"Anything else, Spock?"

"Lieutenant Uhura has a theory concerning the code in which the message was transmitted."

"Uhura?" Said Kirk.

"Captain, the code is, no doubt, an offshoot of a programming language used in late 20th Century Earth in Artificial Intelligence research. I think that the reason of this is because in this alternate timeline, some of those experiments were successful, and..."

"...eventually it fought its creators and won. Much like Exo III." completed Kirk.

"Yes, captain."

"Spock, what is your assessment?" asked Kirk, although he knew more or less what Spock was going to say.

"There aren't enough facts to prove or disprove lieutenant Uhura theory." said Spock. "But it's the simplest theory that fit most of the facts known to us." Then, something in his station attracted Spock's eye. "Captain, we have intercepted a message to the ship in orbit."

"I'll decode it." Said Uhura, turning to her station.

"And I'll try to ascertain the origin of the transmissions, sir." said Spock. "We should have enough data now to project its origin with an acceptable margin."

"Very well." said Kirk.

_Planet Gateway_

Dr. Rajiv Chandra studied again the figures on the screen. Given that his specialty was temporal quantum mechanics, a rather esoteric field, he couldn't help in any way the engineers trying to keep the forcefield from falling apart or the phaser cannons from overheating and explode. But he could gleam any small bit of data that would indicate when and where Sarkowsky had gone and what had happened there, so if they lived they could try to correct the timeline.

"Curious..." he said, looking at a graphic that reflected chronometric disturbances in the timestream. In the years since Captain Kirk had discovered the artifact they had started to learn how to use it to scan the timeline in search for anomalies. In another screen he had the last lectures from the original timeline taken that same morning. He commanded the computer to put both graphics in the same screen, and immediately saw what he had been suspecting since he began to examine the graphics. And it fitted with what the security people had found. He had to talk with the historians that were examining all data concerning the altered timeline.

_Planet Gateway. Orbit_

The vessel received the message from Skynet Central and started to follow the instructions immediately, ceasing the bombardment and reinforcements, and going to an interception course for the incoming ship.

On the surface Nicholson hadn't time to consider what the ship was doing, although without the attackers being constantly reinforced form orbit, they could have a possibility... if the shield didn't fail in the next minutes.

"Shirev! Reinforce the Northeastern shields, they are starting to fail!" he shouted to the Andorian engineer.

Noticing the weakening shields, the mechanical troops concentrated their attacks in the Northeastern section, although the pressure on all sides continued, to draw combatants away from the main attack.

_USS Enterprise_

"The last message that we intercepted contained instructions to move into an interception course, captain. To intercept US " said Uhura. "Apparently we have missed some messages, or..."

"Or we would know that they had detected us. Their long-range sensors must be good to detect us at that distance." Said Kirk. "Spock?"

"Our sensors are detecting a ship moving toward us at warp factor 3. Estimated time of interception, 4.22 minutes. I suppose that is the ship that was in orbit above the Gateway planet, captain." said Spock "The hull seems to be a tritanium-duranium alloy, not unlike the one used in Terran vessels of the mid-22nd Century. Their current speed seems to be their maximum speed, as I'm detecting signals of warp coil stress in their warp trail."

"Why haven't we detected them before, Spock?"

"Unknown, sir. The ship seems to lack a cloaking device, but I would guess that it used the time ripples to hide from us."

"Very clever. Weapons and defenses, Spock?"

"Their ordnance seems to be plasma weapons and nuclear warheads, captain. And I'm detecting some kind of energized hull plating as defense." said Spock "Again much like mid-22nd Century Terran vessels."

"So we are looking at a ship technologically a century behind us."

"Aye, sir. But I'm not detecting any life-form inside."

"Your theory of an unmanned ship seems to be confirmed, Spock." said Kirk

_Planet Gateway. Surface_

The Northeastern shield were holding, at the moment. The automated defenses of the installation were making mincemeat... well, rather mincemetal out of the assaulters. Nicholson sighed in relief. If the shields held four more minutes, they could have a possibility of sending somebody through the Guardian and track Sarkowsky to try to stop him from doing whatever he did in the past.

And then all Hells broke loose.

"Northeastern shields down, sir. They are coming through!" said Shirev from his station.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


End file.
